


For all the places I have been, I'm no place without you

by choomchoom



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One)
Genre: Barfights but in libraries, Coda, Drabble, Issue 38, Libraries, M/M, Minor Violence, nerds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-05
Updated: 2017-12-05
Packaged: 2019-02-10 20:57:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12920100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/choomchoom/pseuds/choomchoom
Summary: Chromedome needs to do some legal research for Brainstorm's case, so he and Rewind take a shuttle to a library on a nearby planet. It doesn't go smoothly, because what ever does for them?





	For all the places I have been, I'm no place without you

**Author's Note:**

> Fic I wrote on my phone months ago and finally decided was worth posting. Title is from Andrew McMahon's Cecilia and the Satellite.

Rewind trailed behind Chromedome, swiveling his head to record the bustling downtown district all around then. Solhanna was a mech-friendly port that had been established by a group of non-affiliated Cybertronians, back in the day, and though the city welcomed all races, Autobot and Decepticon visitors were frowned upon. Rewind had no footage of this place in his archive, and he had been eager to get it--Chromedome's needing to access the Solhanna archives to read up on an ancient case that could prove relevant in Brainstorm's trial was the perfect excuse. 

Rewind took a break from his swiveling to look up at his partner. The GPS said that they were only a few blocks from the library, but Chromedome looked profoundly uncomfortable, shoulders bent and visor affixed firmly on the ground, as though trying to make himself appear smaller, even though they were surrounded by Cybertronians and other species around his height. 

Without really thinking about it, Rewind reached forward and took Chromedome's hand. The action was met with a relieved squeeze and a slight relaxing of Chromedome's shoulders. Rewind couldn't help but feel a flash of irritation, but quelled it as he realized that he wasn't even sure who it was directed at. Early on, as they had tried to adjust to each other, Chromedome had been annoyingly clingy, which Rewind had snapped at him about a few times, before he had figured out how to reconcile a relationship with this Chromedome with the memory of his. Since then, Chromedome had refrained from initiating any touch at all, even at times like this, when he had clearly wanted to. Not only that, Rewind...missed it, a bit. He missed the way Chromedome would reach for him like he was a bouy on the ocean in a crowd, or tangle their fingers together when they were sitting on adjacent barstools, or casually run a hand over his shoulder just because he could. Rewind knew, intellectually, that the issue was both of their faults, and that eventually they had to talk about it. But for now, he squeezed Chromedome's hand back and watched his partner relax a bit more. 

Finally, they reached the doors to the library. The entryway was at least twice Chromedome's height, opening to an intricate lobby. 

After checking in with a Cybertronian librarian about the size of Rung, Chromedome found a terminal and got to work. After asking if Chromedome needed help in a way that was probably obvious as halfhearted, Rewind found a terminal of his own and started combing through the mountains of files stored here. 

First, he made a perfunctory search for Dominus Ambus, and found his expectation that it would yield nothing to be correct. The Bibliotex was a historical library, and the information about wartime and postwar Cybertron was severely limited. After combing through a series of long-memorized documents dated earlier than Dominus's disappearance, he dove into the real treasure trove: the NAIL writings. 

There were a few non-affiliated Cybertronians who had been published extensively whose work Rewind had read before, but the decline of the Shanix in the international market, the exclusion of Autobots from most intergalactic journals, and the war itself had kept Rewind from the bulk of NAIL culture. He hoped to spend the afternoon reading and uploading it until Rodimus called them back to the ship. 

After what didn't seem like nearly enough time, Ultra Magnus called down to give them a one-hour warning. Rewind turned towards the terminal he had last seen Chromedome at and felt his systems lurch when he didn't see him. 

It was only a second before Chromedome appeared out of a stack practically next to Rewind, but the apprehension and then relief that came from it were overwhelming. "You get the message?" Chromedome asked. 

Rewind was still struggling to fight off the scare of seeing Chromedome's empty terminal. "Yeah," he said. "When did you finish?"

Chromedome shrugged. "About an hour ago. I was browsing. They have some fascinating stuff here. Wanted to wait til you were done."

"Well, as long as we don't tell Rodimus that." Rewind slipped his hand into Chromedome's once again. "Ready to head back to the shuttle?" 

Before Chromedome could respond, Rewind felt a hand grasp his shoulder tightly, yanking him away from Chromedome. 

"You wanna tell me what you think you're snooping on our journals for, Autobot?" the Cybertronian who was pushing at Rewind's shoulder snarled. Behind him, the librarian who had checked them in stood impassively with his arms crossed. 

"I think I'm reading freely available documents at a public library. If there's a law that says I can't do that, the copy of your constitution on your network must be outdated. And lucky for all of us, we were just leaving anyway." 

"No law, huh?" The tall Cybertronian glanced back at the librarian. "Now, was there a law that allowed these Autobots to destroy our home and force us to the edges of the galaxy, get us blacklisted by the Galactic Council and make it near impossible to make a life for ourselves?"

"No, Steel, there was no such law." 

Steel turned back to Rewind. "I think what Jolt is getting at is that laws don't dictate our every action. He's a historian; he would know. Steel's hand swung backward in an arc and Rewind braced himself for the hit, but it never came. Chromedome caught the bigger mech's arm and used his momentum to push him backwards into a wall. "You can threaten us all you like, but if you aim to touch him, you're going to have to go through me."

"Fine." Steel swung a leg at Chromedome's knee, breaking the joint with a loud crunch. Chromedome refused to let go of Steel's wrist, though, so the bigger mech hit the floor at the same time. Steel threw a punch towards Chromedome's face, which Chromedome redirected out of the way, incidentally into the nearest bookshelf. 

Alarms started whistling and the four of them were immediately surrounded by a group of identical blue mechs that must be some kind of security force. Steel and Chromedome were still struggling on the floor, but Chromedome seemed to give up when he noticed the security squad. His arms fell limply to the floor and Steel hit him once more. Immediately, the security forces finally hit them both with circuit booster darts and Steel finally stopped fighting as well. 

Rewind felt his systems spasm as the dart hit Chromedome's neck. Circuit boosters were effective at stopping a mech in his tracks but so dangerous that they had been banned from use by law enforcement on Cybertron for centuries before the war, a ban that both the Autobots and Decepticons had upheld. 

Rewind raced to Chromedome, shoving Steel's spasming body off of Chromedome’s with all his strength. Chromedome was conscious, but barely, his movements erratic and his visor too bright. Rewind knelt next to him and took one of his shaking hands, nestling his other hand under Chromedome's neck. He felt a pang of fear when Chromedome didn't seem to react, but after a klik, the shaking started to abate. 

At the same time, three of the blue security mechs moved toward them. "I have a recording of what happened," Rewind said, not moving from Chromedome's side. "We were just here to use the library, and they attacked us."

"We know," one of the mechs said. "We have the security footage to verify your story. But we still need to take both of you in for questioning, to facilitate the arrest." 

"Can we do it remotely, later? We need to get back to our ship, and he needs medical attention." Rewind's hands tightened on Chromedome, who barely seemed aware of the conversation. "Circuit boosters can be deadly, you know." 

"We are aware," a different security mech said. "But Solhanna is a peaceful city, and Cybertronians are not a peaceful race. We value peace in our city over individual Cybertronian lives."

Rewind's recording of that line was certain to cause trouble between the NAILs and aligned on Cybertron, should he ever share it, but right now that was the least of his concerns. "So can we testify remotely?" 

The mechs walked a few steps away, bending their heads together. Rewind was grateful for the moment. 

He squeezed Chromedome's now-limp hand. "Can you hear me?" 

"Yeah," was the shaky response. Rewind gave into impulse and bent down to hug Chromedome properly. Chromedome's arm came up to rest on Rewind's back. 

Finally, he pulled away and helped Chromedome maneuver to a sitting position, leaning against the wall. When he was settled, he reached for Rewind, so subtly that he could have denied he was doing it, but Rewind noticed. He took the proffered hand tight in his own as the security mechs walked back towards them.  

"We will need the personal frequencies of each of you as well as your ship's captain. Upon our receipt of that information, you will be free to go."

Rewind eagerly rattled off the requested numbers, substituting Ultra Magnus's for Rodimus without even really thinking about it. Then, true to their word, the mechs escorted them out of the building after doing a quick and dirty field repair on Chromedome's busted knee. 

Rewind kept his hand in Chromedome's tight grip for their entire slow walk back to the shuttle bay. Neither of them spoke, Chromedome concentrating on walking in a straight line and Rewind running through line after line, unsure of what he wanted to say. 

They finally reached the shuttle, Rewind taking the pilot's seat without protest and adjusting the settings so that he could reach all the controls, while Chromedome shifted around in the copilot seat, hissing as he tried to find a comfortable position for his damaged leg. They were in the air with Solhanna quickly growing smaller behind them when Rewind finally spoke. "Thank you for saving me."

"I didn't save you. I just panicked. I saw him about to take a swing and knew I'd rather feel it on my faceplate than in my spark." 

Rewind allowed himself to giggle a little at that. "You're so corny." Chromedome joined him in his laughter, but after a minute Rewind spoke again. "Well, whatever that was. Thank you." He reached for Chromedome's hand, having just finished programming the autopilot to dock at the Lost Light. 

Chromedome's visor had dimmed by the time they parked, the after effects of the circuit booster draining his energy to levels that would be dangerous without an immediate visit to the Medibay. Rewind had radioed in their situation when they were en route, so Ratchet was waiting in the shuttle bay with a stretcher when they arrived. Rewind and Ratchet had to help Chromedome to walk even the few steps, Ratchet snarling under his breath about unethical endangerment by law enforcement the whole time. 

A whirlwind few minutes later, Chromedome was hooked up to monitors and recharging while Rewind sat next to him, elbows on his knees, just watching. The Solhanna security mechs had already pinged him for details of the encounter, and true to his word, Rewind had sent them his own footage and a short description of what had happened. 

"You wouldn't remember, but this reminds me of a time the other version of you was injured. Has anyone told you about that?" Ratchet had come up behind Rewind, startling him. 

"Tailgate told me a little. There was a bomb, he helped Tailgate diffuse it, Cyclonus and him got caught in the blast anyway." 

"Well, Tailgate was here in the aftermath too, hovering around Cyclonus's bedside like Chromedome hovered around yours. You - he almost died, but First Aid found a compatible spark to jumpstart yours."

"Domey?"

"No, his was too weak. Could be for any number of reasons, medically speaking, but we couldn't have done the procedure because we weren't sure you would both survive. It was actually Whirl who volunteered. When I had to tell Chromedome he couldn't save you himself, he was devastated." 

"Why are you telling me all this now?" Rewind asked. 

"Because I know you two have had your issues. It was pretty close quarters while we were time traveling, and I saw the way you two danced around each other. I just wanted to make sure you recognized that when you were hurt, he was there. He cares for you deeply enough to have been angry that First Aid and I refused to allow him to risk his life to save you." 

"Well, thank you," Rewind said. 

"Ask him about it, if you'd like," Ratchet commented mildly before walking away. 

Rewind thought about it. Like he'd refused to let Chromedome touch him, he had also been against hearing about anything the other Rewind had done. Maybe, after all him and this Chromedome had been through, it was finally time to talk about it. 


End file.
